CHAPTER XIII 



THE MYSTERIOUS MR. " OBSERVER " 



Observation tells me that you have a little 

 reddish mold adhering to your instep. . . . 

 So much is observation. The rest is deduction. 



Sherlock Holmes. 

 Sign of Four (Doyle) . 



IN Prehistoric Days, when one man hied himself from 

 his cave to impress his ideas upon another the per- 

 suasion used took the form of a wallop on the head 

 with a stone axe It was the age of Individual Opinion. 

 But as Man hewed his way upward along Time's 

 tangled trails personal opinions began to jog along 

 together in groups, creating Force. With the growth 

 of populations and the invention of printing this power 

 was called Public Opinion and experience soon taught 

 the folly of ignoring it. 



In the course of human aspiration Somebody who 

 had a Bright Mind got the notion that in order to get 

 his own way without fighting the crowd all he had to 

 do was to educate the " Great Common Pee-pul " to his 

 way of thinking and by sowing enough seed in public 

 places up would come whatever kind of crop he wanted. 

 Thus, by making Public Opinion himself he would 

 avoid the hazard of opposing it. The name of this 

 Sagacious Pioneer of Special Privilege who manufac- 

 tured the first carload of Public Opinion is lost to 

 posterity; all that is known about him is that he was 

 a close student of the Art of concealing Artifice by 

 Artlessness and therefore wore gum rubbers on his feet 

 and carried around a lot of Presents to give away. 



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